Belarus' defence ministry says it downed Ukrainian S-300 missile | World News

Belarus' defence ministry mentioned its air defences had downed a Ukrainian S-300 missile in a discipline on Thursday morning, throughout one in every of Russia's largest missile assaults towards Ukraine for the reason that begin of the battle.

The army commissar of the Brest area, Oleg Konovalov, performed the incident down in a video message posted on social media by the state-run BelTA information company, saying that native residents had "completely nothing to fret about. Sadly, this stuff occur".

He in contrast the incident to at least one in November, when an S-300 believed to have strayed after being fired by Ukrainian air defences landed in NATO-member Poland, and preliminary fears of an escalation within the battle had been quickly defused.

The S-300 is a Soviet-era air defence system that's utilized by each Russia and Ukraine.

The Belarus ministry mentioned on Thursday it had shot down the missile close to the village of Harbacha within the Brest area, some 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Ukraine, at round 10 a.m. (0700 GMT).

"Fragments had been present in an agricultural discipline ... In the course of the verification course of, it was established that the wreckage belongs to an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile fired from the territory of Ukraine," the ministry mentioned in a press release.

The incident occurred on the identical time Russia was launching its newest wave of missile assaults on cities throughout Ukraine.

BelTA printed photographs and video of what it mentioned had been components of an S-300 missile mendacity in an empty agricultural discipline.

The defence ministry didn't present any details about casualties, and mentioned it could present extra detailed data within the close to future.

Belarus allowed Moscow to make use of its territory as a launchpad for the invasion of Ukraine in February, and there was a rising flurry of Russian and Belarusian army exercise in current months.

Minsk has, nonetheless, insisted that it isn't taking part within the battle, and won't take part until its personal safety is threatened by Ukraine or Ukraine's Western allies.

Kyiv has used the S-300 system to intercept incoming Russian missiles, whereas Russia has appeared to make use of repurposed S-300 missiles to assault floor targets - one thing that army analysts say might be an indication that its missile shares are dwindling.